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Coffee is complex. Can science standardize it for the better?

5/1/202610 min

Ask any coffee aficionado, and they’ll tell you: A good cup is about more than the beans. The flavor is affected by lots of things – the roast and fermentation of the beans, the coarseness of the grind, the brewing temperature and even the chemicals in the water used to brew it. But there are very few quantitative ways to assess all the flavor variations. Current industry standards measure the concentration of coffee, but they often miss qualities like the acidity, brightness and fruitness. Scientists at the University of Oregon are trying to change that using a tool called a potentiostat that’s often used to measure the charge in batteries.

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Clips

Measuring Coffee With Voltage
Toward Coffee Flavor Numbers
Personality Shapes Your Dreams
Scorpion Weapons Built With Metal

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 00:00

    This message comes from Avalara. What's it like running a business with Avalara? No thinking about tax and compliance. It's handled. Calculating, filing, validating accurately and audit defensively. Avalara, agentic taxes and compliance with confidence.

  2. Emily Kwong· Host0:16

    [shortwave music] You're listening to Short Wave from NPR. Hey, Short Wavers, Emily Kwong here.

  3. Rachel Carlson· Host0:24

    And Rachel Carlson with our biweekly science news roundup.

  4. Emily Kwong· Host0:28

    And this time with a special guest, our colleague, Sasha Pfeiffer. Sasha, how's your love of science these days?

  5. Sasha Pfeiffer· Guest0:34

    Well, I, as I think you two know, I am married to a science teacher, so I would say that my love of science- [laughs] ... is always pretty high.

  6. Rachel Carlson· Host0:40

    We love it. We love it.

  7. Emily Kwong· Host0:42

    Shout out to all science teachers. Question for you. [pensive music] Uh, is your husband or are you a coffee drinker?

  8. Sasha Pfeiffer· Guest0:46

    He is. I am not.

  9. Emily Kwong· Host0:49

    Mm-hmm.

  10. Sasha Pfeiffer· Guest0:49

    I try not to be dependent on it.

  11. Rachel Carlson· Host0:51

    Mm.

  12. Sasha Pfeiffer· Guest0:51

    And I also honestly need so much sugar in it that I just figure why make that a habit?

  13. Rachel Carlson· Host0:54

    I'm so jealous.

  14. Emily Kwong· Host0:56

    A house divided.

  15. Rachel Carlson· Host0:56

    [laughs] Emily and I both need coffee in the morning to function. Sorry, Emily, for- Affirmative ... calling you out.

  16. Emily Kwong· Host1:01

    [laughs] Affirmative. Yep.

  17. Rachel Carlson· Host1:02

    Uh, but Sasha, we are more than coffee aficionados on the show. We also have updates for you on dream research- Yes ... and what's going on in scorpions' arsenal of weapons- [laughs] ... at the molecular level.

  18. Sasha Pfeiffer· Guest1:14

    I think I read a little bit about this. This is kind of the makeup of their stingers and their claws and all that other terrifying weaponry that is built into their bodies.

  19. Emily Kwong· Host1:23

    The stuff of nightmares.

  20. Rachel Carlson· Host1:23

    Exactly.

  21. Sasha Pfeiffer· Guest1:24

    Yes.

  22. Rachel Carlson· Host1:24

    Exactly. And you can let us know at the end if it's more exciting and cool to know about scorpions or

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